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They've had the ability to monitor energy use for a while-the DEA does it all the time to bust people who grow weed at home.

The City of Warren recently installed new water meters, so that they can drive by the house waving a monitor and pick up everyone's info for billing.

I'm not thrilled in either case, but it would cross another line to give the utility companies government authorization to control individual usage. I'm not sure how the courts would rule on that.

A lot of utilities (probably all of them but I don't know this for sure) began installing 'smart' meters and other grid enhancing devices several years ago using government handouts given to them under the guise of 'stimulus' money. Smart grids in themselves are not sinister in the least. They allow the utility to more efficiently distribute their energy product. The bottom line is that utilities want to sell more energy products, not less. And in a laissez faire capitalist environment the utility meets the demand efficiently, the customer sets his thermostat where ever the hell he pleases and everybody is happy. But when .gov gets involved, everything changes...................

"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that you won't need it until they try to take it away."---Thomas Jefferson

A lot of utilities (probably all of them but I don't know this for sure) began installing 'smart' meters and other grid enhancing devices several years ago using government handouts given to them under the guise of 'stimulus' money. Smart grids in themselves are not sinister in the least. They allow the utility to more efficiently distribute their energy product. The bottom line is that utilities want to sell more energy products, not less. And in a laissez faire capitalist environment the utility meets the demand efficiently, the customer sets his thermostat where ever the hell he pleases and everybody is happy. But when .gov gets involved, everything changes...................

In California (of course) PG&E is already using remote controlled thermostats in subscribers homes to control their environmental settings (depending on their system load), but they are easy to disable with an EPROM burner.....there is a HUGE cottage industry being set up to program them to send fake info to the utilities.

In California (of course) PG&E is already using remote controlled thermostats in subscribers homes to control their environmental settings (depending on their system load), but they are easy to disable with an EPROM burner.....there is a HUGE cottage industry being set up to program them to send fake info to the utilities.

Without a warrant, there is nothing that the utility can do about it.

doc

By 'subscribers' you mean voluntary, right? (at least for now.....)

"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that you won't need it until they try to take it away."---Thomas Jefferson